Some months ago I wrote about the Pennsylvania German Birth and Baptismal certificates (often known as Taufscheine or Fraktur) that were produced in the Hanover print shop of Wilhelm Daniel Lepper and Samuel Endredy Stettinius. These two printers established Hanover’s first newspaper Die Pennsylvanische Wochenschrift, in 1797 and issued their
Do you ever wish you knew what your ancestors were like? After all, they were living, breathing souls just like you and me. Most of you probably know or knew your parents and all or many of your grandparents. Some even remember a great-grandparent or so. Just multiply those family
This is my favorite time of year. One big reason is the abundance of locally grown fruits and vegetables. My mother was a very active gardener nearly all her life. One on my first memories is awakening at a very young age and going out to find her in the
Some of you might be lucky enough to have Pennsylvania German birth and baptismal certificates that were done for family members well over 100 years ago. Or you just might be intrigued by the art and design of these unique folk art documents and perhaps collect them. I have written
Each of our York County communities, no matter what size, seems to have its own uniquely rich history. My own families settled, some well over two hundred years ago, in the southeastern part of the county. I still have so much to learn, especially about the rest of the county.
York attorney Thomas Hambly argued Prigg v. Pennsylvania before the United States Supreme Court.
York County’s Phineas Davis, an inventor, contributed much to commerce and transportation in the 40 short years of his life.
While doing some research on Phineas Davis and his York locomotive for an upcoming column, I realized I had never posted my column from some time ago on John Elgar and his Codorus steamboat. Elgar was a member of York’s Quaker community, as was Davis, and his iron steam boat
A few weeks ago I posted the tale of Spoonie Gohn’s supposed encounters with Slaymaker’s ghost at Margaretta Furnace. I had initially shared that story with the attendees at the York Daily Record annual Unraveling York County History night in early December. Margaretta Furnace with the grand mansion house and
It was good to see many of you at the York Daily Record’s Unraveling York County History event last week. For those of you who didn’t make it, the theme this year was “Weird York.” The YDR bloggers each did two stories. My first tale was “The Ghost of Margaretta